U.S. military hospitals plagued by avoidable errors: NYT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military hospital system,
which cares for the 1.6 million active-duty service members and
their families, is rife with chronic yet avoidable errors and is
only subject to sporadic scrutiny, the New York Times reported
on Saturday.

The paper said that it had found during a major
investigation that the military hospital network, which is
totally separate from the scandal-plagued Veterans
Administration system, had a particularly bad track record in
the areas of maternity care and surgery.

"More than 50,000 babies are born at military hospitals each
year, and they are twice as likely to be injured during delivery
as newborns nationwide, the most recent statistics show," the
paper said.

It said its examination concluded that "the military lags
behind many civilian hospital systems in protecting patients
from harm." The review is based on Pentagon studies, court
records, analyses of thousands of pages of data and interviews
with current and former military health officials and workers.

"The most common errors are strikingly prosaic - the unread
file, the unheeded distress call, the doctor on one floor not
talking to the doctor on another," the paper said.

But it also quoted examples of "never events," so-called
because they are so grave yet preventable.

"A viable fetus died after a surgeon operated on the wrong
part of the mother' body," the paper said.

"A 41-year-old woman's healthy thyroid gland was removed
because someone else's biopsy result had been recorded on her
chart. A 54-year-old retired officer suffered acute kidney
failure and permanent hearing loss after an incorrect dose of
chemotherapy," it cited as other examples.

The New York Times quoted defense officials as saying
military hospitals deliver treatment that is as good, if not
better, than civilian hospitals.

"We strive to be a perfect system, but we are not a perfect
system, and we know it," the paper quoted Dr. Jonathan Woodson,
assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, as saying.
"We must learn from our mistakes and take corrective actions to
prevent them from reoccurring."

The Times said records showed that mandated safety
investigations often went undone, that less than half of
reported unexpected deaths inquiries were forwarded to the
Pentagon's patient-safety center and that cases involving
permanent harm often remained unexamined.

In late May, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a 90-day
review of all military hospitals to determine whether they had
the same problems recently exposed in the veterans health
system.

Widespread evidence of delays in military veterans getting
healthcare at the Veterans Administration's facilities prompted
the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki late in May.